Neutron star spotted moving 5 million mph, trailing particle jet

Jet is the longest collection of high energy particles in the Milky Way.

Yesterday, the people who run NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory announced that they had imaged the longest particle jet yet seen in the Milky Way. The jet, seen in the lower right in the image above, has reached this length because its source, a neutron star known as IGR J11014-6103, also happens to be one of the fastest moving neutron stars ever spotted, possibly traveling as fast as eight million kilometers an hour.

Neutron stars are formed in supernova explosions, which are typically symmetrical. As a result, many of them never leave the supernova remnant in which they form. In some cases, however, asymmetries in the explosion give the neutron star a nudge and send it traveling from the site where the exploding star sat. In the case of IGR J11014-6103, the nudge was anything but gentle; preliminary estimates of its speed place it at between four and eight million kilometers an hour, making it one of the fastest moving neutron stars ever spotted.

But the new observations show that, in addition to its high speed, the neutron star has a feature that's less unusual: high-energy particle jets that mark it as a pulsar. In this case, the jets appear to be emitted in a direction that's perpendicular to the neutron star's motion, making them tail off at an angle. In addition, kinks in the jets suggest that the axis of rotation of the neutron star has a significant wobble in it.

Further observations of the system could help clarify the features of the asymmetries that sent the neutron star packing and give us a glimpse into the processes that produce a supernova.

A meteor hitting the earth is not the right way of thinking about what would happen if this collided with a star. It's much much cooler than that! A neutron star is tiny compared to a normal star, and much much denser. At this speed its moving faster than the escape velocity of anything but a really enormous star. So basically it should just pass right through, like a bullet going through a person. Since it will move faster than the speed of sound in a star it will produce shock waves once it reaches a suitable depth, but I don't think these will much of an effect on the star because of what happens next. They'll just be moving to slowly.

However, it will take a long time for it to pass through, because stars are rather large. It would taken about 8 days to go through our sun, and about 20 years to pass through betelgeuse. The surface gravity of neutron star is astronomical so all that while it will be sucking up matter from the other star. Once it passes about 3 solar masses... which it would it encountering any star of sun's size or larger, it passes the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit and will be too large to remain a neutron star. It will then go supernova again, and blast betelgeuse into smithereens leaving a black hole behind.

Edit:I obviously can't read and 8000 km/h instead of 8 million... so my numbers are 3 orders of magnitude too big. In the case of betelgeuse this shouldn't matter. In the case of the sun I think it probably will. The neutron star would probably just pass right through the star like a (really big and fast) bullet.

Originally discovered with the European Space Agency satellite INTEGRAL, the pulsar is located about 60 light-years away from the center of the supernova remnant SNR MSH 11-61A in the constellation of Carina. Its implied speed is between 2.5 million and 5 million mph, making it one of the fastest pulsars ever observed.

Nonsense. The neutron star is stationary. Everything else is rushing past it at 8 million kph.

I've always enjoyed this point of view. Pre-Copernicus, we thought we were the center of the universe. Then Copernicus/Newton/Galilei show that we're not the center. Then Einstein comes along with relativity and says "Sure we're the center. Why not?"

Edit: Just a little lighthearted humor -- I know that's not really what relativity is about.Edit2: Because I cna't speel

Is the neutron star still accelerating? If the jet is in the opposite direction from current motion, this suggests it should be getting even faster. This would be a direct consequence of Newton's Laws of Motion.

Nonsense. The neutron star is stationary. Everything else is rushing past it at 8 million kph.

I've always ejnoyed this point of view. Pre-Copernicus, we thought we were the center of the universe. Then Copernicus/Newton/Galilei show that we're not the center. Then Einstein comes along with relativity and says "Sure we're the center. Why not?"

Edit: Just a little lighthearted humor -- I know that's not really what relativity is about.

I always want to make snarky comments whenever there's a study out saying "X% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth!" I think, "Well, why not? It's just as valid a model, physics-wise, as the converse, even if it's a bit more complicated."

Is the neutron star still accelerating? If the jet is in the opposite direction from current motion, this suggests it should be getting even faster. This would be a direct consequence of Newton's Laws of Motion.

the article says perpendicular... and in the case of a pulsar the jet comes out of both poles so if any force was applied, i would think they would cancel eachother out.

I'm trying to get my head around what would happen if this thing were to smack into a large star. I'd imagine if it struck one of similar mass, both would annihilate in a huge explosion, but what about an absolutely huge star, Betelgeuse size or larger. Would it leave an impact crater in the plasma? Massive ejections of solar material that would slowly fall back, so that in some number of years you couldn't even tell it had ever happened?

Is the neutron star still accelerating? If the jet is in the opposite direction from current motion, this suggests it should be getting even faster. This would be a direct consequence of Newton's Laws of Motion.

the article says perpendicular... and in the case of a pulsar the jet comes out of both poles so if any force was applied, i would think they would cancel eachother out.

That is perpendicular to the neutron star's spin. The jet looks like it is proceeding from only one pole, not both. Hence there ought to be a net acceleration.

Is the neutron star still accelerating? If the jet is in the opposite direction from current motion, this suggests it should be getting even faster. This would be a direct consequence of Newton's Laws of Motion.

the article says perpendicular... and in the case of a pulsar the jet comes out of both poles so if any force was applied, i would think they would cancel eachother out.

That is perpendicular to the neutron star's spin. The jet looks like it is proceeding from only one pole, not both. Hence there ought to be a net acceleration.

Originally discovered with the European Space Agency satellite INTEGRAL, the pulsar is located about 60 light-years away from the center of the supernova remnant SNR MSH 11-61A in the constellation of Carina. Its implied speed is between 2.5 million and 5 million mph, making it one of the fastest pulsars ever observed.

So it seems the motion is relative to the supernova that birthed it.

Like, what if, like, nothing is moving, but the space between objects is like growing man... Because like, the universe is like growing, and we're just sitting in the same spot and like everything else stays in the same spot and like the space between objects is just growing.. you know?

Like, what if, like, nothing is moving, but the space between objects is like growing man... Because like, the universe is like growing, and we're just sitting in the same spot and like everything else stays in the same spot and like the space between objects is just growing.. you know?

A meteor hitting the earth is not the right way of thinking about what would happen if this collided with a star. It's much much cooler than that! A neutron star is tiny compared to a normal star, and much much denser. At this speed its moving faster than the escape velocity of anything but a really enormous star. So basically it should just pass right through, like a bullet going through a person. Since it will move faster than the speed of sound in a star it will produce shock waves once it reaches a suitable depth, but I don't think these will much of an effect on the star because of what happens next. They'll just be moving to slowly.

However, it will take a long time for it to pass through, because stars are rather large. It would taken about 8 days to go through our sun, and about 20 years to pass through betelgeuse. The surface gravity of neutron star is astronomical so all that while it will be sucking up matter from the other star. Once it passes about 3 solar masses... which it would it encountering any star of sun's size or larger, it passes the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit and will be too large to remain a neutron star. It will then go supernova again, and blast betelgeuse into smithereens leaving a black hole behind.

Edit:I obviously can't read and 8000 km/h instead of 8 million... so my numbers are 3 orders of magnitude too big. In the case of betelgeuse this shouldn't matter. In the case of the sun I think it probably will. The neutron star would probably just pass right through the star like a (really big and fast) bullet.

A meteor hitting the earth is not the right way of thinking about what would happen if this collided with a star. It's much much cooler than that! A neutron star is tiny compared to a normal star, and much much denser. At this speed its moving faster than the escape velocity of anything but a really enormous star. So basically it should just pass right through, like a bullet going through a person.

However, it will take a long time for it to pass through, because stars are rather large. It would taken about 8 days to go through our sun, and about 20 years to pass through betelgeuse. The surface gravity of neutron star is of course astronomical so all that while it will be sucking up matter from the other star. Once it passes about 3 solar masses... which it would it encountering any star of sun's size or larger, it pass the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit and be too large to remain a neutron star. It will then go supernova again, and blast betelgeuse into smithereens leaving a black hole behind.

That sounds pretty awesome, but how did you arrive at those time estimates? Google says the sun is about 1.4M km in diameter, so even if the neutron star hit it at its widest spot, it should still only take around 20 minutes to pass through the sun. I get about 8 days for Betelgeuse, though.1,641,380,000 / 8,000,000 = ~205 hours = about 8 days.

The irony is yesterday I showed my wife the National Geographic "what if" special "Evacuate Earth". Cause of Earth's destruction in it, you guessed neutron star collision. The bit where the billionaires start their own space ark program at $500 million a ticket was mildly amusing.